| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | ProZ chat scam? Thread poster: Lincoln Hui
|
|---|
Lincoln Hui 
Hong Kong
Local time: 05:54
Member
Chinese to English
+ ...
| | Chat option vs. email | May 16, 2018 |
It looks like a scam. You should send a support ticket.
Actually I never understood this chat option. You can see such chat boxes when you log on a company's website and customer service chat bots (or humans) answer your questions concerning a product or a service.
But we are individual translators, we are not proz's employers.
I think a direct email is preferred (translators should be able to set their preference: to direct email address or via proz's message s... See more It looks like a scam. You should send a support ticket.
Actually I never understood this chat option. You can see such chat boxes when you log on a company's website and customer service chat bots (or humans) answer your questions concerning a product or a service.
But we are individual translators, we are not proz's employers.
I think a direct email is preferred (translators should be able to set their preference: to direct email address or via proz's message system). It is a business only between the translator and the client. Email conversations can be searched back later, and they have more legal backup.
[Edited at 2018-05-16 07:04 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:54
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Katalin Szilárd wrote:
Actually I never understood this chat option.
Nor I, and nobody has ever tried to chat with me.
| | | |
Tom in London wrote: Katalin Szilárd wrote:
Actually I never understood this chat option. Nor I, and nobody has ever tried to chat with me.
But we are not customer service people either.
| | |
|
|
|
| Instant communication | May 16, 2018 |
I have had several customers ask for my Skype name in the first email, because they wanted to discuss and negotiate in a more 'direct'/'instant' manner. That's why the chat feature could be useful to some.
I don't understand why you took it wrong and felt insulted by it. No one told you that you are not a human being and an independent professional.
That being said, I won't probably use ProZ.com's chat: I don't like this avalanche of features that no one seems to have a... See more I have had several customers ask for my Skype name in the first email, because they wanted to discuss and negotiate in a more 'direct'/'instant' manner. That's why the chat feature could be useful to some.
I don't understand why you took it wrong and felt insulted by it. No one told you that you are not a human being and an independent professional.
That being said, I won't probably use ProZ.com's chat: I don't like this avalanche of features that no one seems to have asked for and which I have no time to study and set up.
You had one job, ProZ: make a modern website, which renders nicely on screens of any size. Instead, you focused your efforts on trying to get more money and more data out of us, so most parts of the site still look like we're in 1999, and the mobile app is mostly useless. Your agenda doesn't seem to be quite in line with the interests of translators. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lian Pang
Netherlands
Local time: 23:54
Member (2018)
English to Chinese
+ ...
| what's up with that long email name | May 16, 2018 |
Looks scammy
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:54
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Epameinondas Soufleros wrote:
.... most parts of the site still look like we're in 1999....
I know - it looks like something antique.
| | | | | Chat after the client has reached you | May 16, 2018 |
Epameinondas Soufleros wrote:
I have had several customers ask for my Skype name in the first email, because they wanted to discuss and negotiate in a more 'direct'/'instant' manner. That's why the chat feature could be useful to some.
I don't understand why you took it wrong and felt insulted by it. No one told you that you are not a human being and an independent professional.
I don't know whether this last sentence of yours was addressed to me (I assume yes, since I wrote about chat box bots and independent translators).
I didn't feel insulted. I just said that these conversations should be a business only between you and your client and normally it is done via email. But the situation you wrote with Skype was different: the client has already reached you by email before. So you 2 "knew each other". Both of you knew the other's real contact details.
But here as I see chats' default message is: Hello, are you available for a translation job?
This cannot be traced back. I have missing job emails either way sent via proz, so this chat is the least traceable: who and why and when contacted me.
I prefer clients to reach me directly by my email address.
[Edited at 2018-05-16 08:15 GMT]
| | |
|
|
|
Kay Denney
France
Local time: 23:54
French to English
| The point of chat | May 16, 2018 |
At the agency I used to work for, we used Skype for instant messaging with the PMs in a different location.
PMs would ping me to see if I'm free (they never looked at the schedule I filled in all the time).
I wouldn't answer until they had told me what for, when for, who for, how many words, what software... which information I had to ask for, question by question, like pulling worms from their nose (as the French so eloquently put it).
Then once I had agreed to do it, they ... See more At the agency I used to work for, we used Skype for instant messaging with the PMs in a different location.
PMs would ping me to see if I'm free (they never looked at the schedule I filled in all the time).
I wouldn't answer until they had told me what for, when for, who for, how many words, what software... which information I had to ask for, question by question, like pulling worms from their nose (as the French so eloquently put it).
Then once I had agreed to do it, they would send me an official email recapping all that information along with the file, and I would have to officially confirm it. So what was the point of giving me the info bit by bit? All that happened was that they wasted ten minutes of my time. So I just stopped logging into Skype, and all went well.
It was useful when I just had a quick question during the translation, but that was about it. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I get your point | May 16, 2018 |
Now I fully understand your point, Katalin. Thanks for elaborating.
| | | | | Real-time communications settings page | May 16, 2018 |
I stumbled upon a Proz page with real-time communications settings a few days ago:
https://www.proz.com/rtc/settings
I disabled all the 'instant' stuff, as it's impossible to focus on translating and reviewing if I'm interrupted all the time by people who think I'm running a 24/7 call centre.
Could anyone imagine such an 'instant' service for solicitors, accountant... See more I stumbled upon a Proz page with real-time communications settings a few days ago:
https://www.proz.com/rtc/settings
I disabled all the 'instant' stuff, as it's impossible to focus on translating and reviewing if I'm interrupted all the time by people who think I'm running a 24/7 call centre.
Could anyone imagine such an 'instant' service for solicitors, accountants and notaries?
Email gets here almost instantly anyway, but if I don't answer instantly, it's because I'm trying to work. Human translation is not an 'instant' service like Google Translate, and it's not particularly helpful that Proz are enforcing the perception that it is by enabling such gadgets.
I don't know how to use navigation to reach that settings page. I cannot find any link to it in my profile, particularly not under Contact, where it would seem to belong. The site's features are sprawling in several directions, and nobody seems to understand the need for an overall coherent navigation structure. In other words, the site navigation is becoming not just a mess, but a mystery. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Thank you, Thomas | May 16, 2018 |
Thomas T. Frost wrote: I stumbled upon a Proz page with real-time communications settings a few days ago: https://www.proz.com/rtc/settings I disabled all the 'instant' stuff, as it's impossible to focus on translating and reviewing if I'm interrupted all the time by people who think I'm running a 24/7 call centre.
This is very valuable information. Thanks a lot!
| | |
|
|
|
Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 17:54
Spanish to English
+ ...
| "Great, let's run with it!" | May 16, 2018 |
Thomas T. Frost wrote:
Email gets here almost instantly anyway, but if I don't answer instantly, it's because I'm trying to work. Human translation is not an 'instant' service like Google Translate, and it's not particularly helpful that Proz are enforcing the perception that it is by enabling such gadgets.
Very well said indeed. My guess is that such a thought never occurred to a single person in the various formal and informal meetings where this and similar ideas were hatched. Quite telling.
| | | |
I think they got the people who made TM-Town involved and they are introducing all those modern yet useless features, instead of just making a usable, responsive site.
This happens when devs judge based on the 'coolness factor' instead of day-to-day, real-word usefulness.
[Edited at 2018-05-16 13:45 GMT]
| | | | Vi Pukite
United States
Local time: 14:54
Latvian to English
+ ...
| Real-time communications settings page | May 16, 2018 |
Actually the page is easily accessible from the drop-down menu that appears when you hover over your name and picture in the upper right of every screen. It also has explanations of many of the issues brought up in this discussion.
| | | | | Pages in topic: [1 2] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » ProZ chat scam? | TM-Town | Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business
Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.
More info » |
| | Trados Business Manager Lite | Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio
Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
Translation news
